Messages

16

Astro Slide - Android / Re: Flash tool download - where?

« on: June 13, 2023, 06:31:15 am »

Edit: Oh... I just found your Dead screen thread, in which you already thought of a (non Planet?) HDMI adapter. Sorry about the noise below then...



One somewhat costly and possibly slow to arrive approach, might be to get a Planet HDMI adapter. In spite of "Gemini" in the name, the same adapter works with the Cosmo and Astro as well.

https://store.planetcom.co.uk/collections/planet-accessories/products/gemini-hdmi-video-cable

On the Astro, it is a bit painful to use. On the other Planet devices, you could plug it in whenever (provided a certain setting was on). On the Astro, the only opportunity to activate external HDMI is during boot, which on the other hand, has the "advantage" of not requiring any settings beforehand.

When my V07 update went wrong and the screen in my Astro stopped working, I plugged in the adapter in the left side USB-C port, connected an HDMI cable to the living room TV and forced a reboot by holding the power button for close to ten seconds, until the Astro vibrated shortly. That gave me an external screen to work with. (I also tried a 24" Dell monitor, but it didn't like the HDMI signal).

While the previous Planet devices would output the same resolution as their internal screens, the Astro outputs a 720p picture at 60Hz, which isn't ideal but mostly workable, especially after tweaking the screen scaling and the fonts to the smallest possible.

As, in my case, touch doesn't work either, I used keyboard shortcuts to get into the settings, turned on bluetooth and paired a bluetooth mouse. While in flight mode (might not be necessary, but I don't know how the Astro would otherwise have reacted to me opening the SIM tray) I inserted a micro-SD card for file backup (which I preferred over online backups).

That left the right side USB port free to plug in power. That side does not support fast-charging but can keep the device powered. After adding a wired headset, I had myself a kind of "stationary mobile", allowing me to use whatever backup tools I want.

17

Astro Slide - Android / Re: Astro update to V07

« on: June 09, 2023, 08:04:25 am »

How to update the Astro? I'm still on V01. When I launch the Planet Updater app it just gives an "java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'int java.lang.String.length()' on a null object reference" error.

I'm probably not the right person to answer this, as my low level Astro knowledge is flaky, at best. As far I recall (which could be wrong), I too used to get this message before the V07 update was released. I'm guessing that Planet may have withdrawn the update, while they are investigating why a few Astros ended up with dysfunctional internal screens after the update?

I guess no updates have come from Planet...

Not to me anyway. I have sent them another e-mail today, with my latest (non-)findings. I have quoted what I wrote below.

Hi again.
 
It's now been about two weeks since we were last in touch regarding the botched update that caused the screen in my Astro to stop working. I would therefore like to ask how things are going for you. Any progress or ideas?
 
Meanwhile, I have learnt from the community that a factory reset does not resolve this issue (which makes me wonder if even a reflash would reliably remedy this).
 
One user was apparently able to make their screen turn on, though with completely wrong colors, by forcing a large number of reboots, holding the power button "much longer than anyone should". I tried that, for up to three minutes straight, with no success. Near the reboots, I saw brief flashes of white light on the screen, but that was all.
 
With HDMI connected, I played a video until my Astro shut down (when not having to power its internal screen, 45% charge lasted six hours). With HDMI still attached, I then confirmed it wouldn't turn on, neither normally nor in recovery mode.
 
When I pressed the power button in that state, the vibrator still buzzed briefly, suggesting the Astro wasn't completely unpowered. Had this been a Cosmo or Gemini, I may have disassembled it enough to physically unplug the battery and fully power down the electronics, but I'm not sure how to safely do that on an Astro. Do you have any suggestions on how to do that, given basic tools and moderate tinkering skills?
 
I then unplugged the HDMI and connected a charger. The LED close to the front camera came on in red, the one next to Q came on in blue shortly after and both stayed lit, which I take to mean the device was off and charging, but the screen remained off, never showing the charging animation.
 
When I then tried to turn it on, it booted normally, as far as I can tell from the vibrator and the LEDs, but still with its internal screen off, So I plugged in the HDMI again, forced another reboot and was back to where I were.
 
While the Astro kind-of-works on external HDMI and I have marshalled my Cosmo into basic service, via a spare SIM and call forwarding, this is getting increasingly impractical. I could move my main SIM to the Cosmo and make it my main phone again, but I'd have to get a new e-id, move stuff over and then reverse that once my Astro is back to normal. It's doable, but I'd rather not, if I don't have to.
 
Kind regards
Daniel Wikholm, Sweden

In theory (with USB attached to device):

Code: [Select]

adb reboot fastboot
fastboot getvar current-slot   => probably outputs "slot b"
fastboot --set-active=a  (if it was b)
fastboot reboot


Since I don't have the necessary tools on my PC, and normally wouldn't have any use for them, I would appreciate it, if that person didn't have to be me. I would still try this before sending my Astro away though.

18

Astro Slide - Android / Re: Astro update to V07

« on: June 03, 2023, 03:20:16 pm »

Summary: Not much new to report.

I unplugged the HDMI, leaving power connected, and held the power button down to induce multiple reboots back-to-back. First I tried five, then ten and finally about twenty-five, which corresponds to holding the power button down for three minutes straight. The internal screen still didn't turn on. For certain this time, though, I saw faint, hazy flashes of white light about the time of each reboot.

I hooked up the TV again and went into the recovery menu. Lacking better ideas, I tried to "Run graphics test" and got a scare. In rapid succession, I was shown "Error", "No command", "Erasing" and "Installing system update".

A few seconds later I was back at the recovery menu again. Somewhat nervous, I rebooted without HDMI and... nothing new. The LED next to Q came on in blue for a few seconds and then nothing, as usual. I rebooted again, with HDMI and Android booted normally. As far as I can tell, all my apps, data and settings are still there.

Returning once more to the recovery menu, I ran the locale test, which showed me a few short phrases and let my cycle through various locales using the volume buttons. Finally, I looked at the recovery log. To me it looked like a boot log that didn't say me all that much. I could share it, should anyone be interested, but as I don't know any other way to get to that file, and OCR didn't give any useful results, I'd have to post a bunch of photos of the TV.

19

Astro Slide - Android / Re: Astro update to V07

« on: May 30, 2023, 09:09:49 am »

Edit: @Daniel Have you had any luck with getting the firmware from Planet?

I haven't heard from them since Friday May 26, nor have I tried to reach them. If things went as they thought back then, they should have had an affected Astro to examine since Saturday May 27. I presume they'll get back to me once they have something to share. I don't want to nag them too much, so I intend to stay put for at least a few more days.

Since the same firmware apparently gives different users different results, I don't know, at this point, if a reflash would even help, and I suspect the Planet representative mostly just presumed it would. I mean, he reasonably cannot have know what was the actual issue when he, near midnight, responded to my first email about this.

If these are non-volatile settings in a display controller, that somehow has a greater than zero probability of corruption, perhaps they normally would be left as-is by a non-botched update? If so, it could take some low level specialized software or ADB hacking to restore such settings.

Since undecisive was able to able to wake the screen up (though in psychedelic mode), I'm thinking about forcing a bunch of reboots back-to-back just to see if anything happens. For most of my needs, a psychedelic phone would be more useful than one hooked up 24/7 to my livingroom TV.

20

Astro Slide - Android / Re: Astro update to V07

« on: May 29, 2023, 06:52:23 am »

A factory reset didn't solve the problem... 

Welp... thank you for trying anyway. Though not successful, it's still good to know. If you haven't already, perhaps share the discovery with Planet.

After reading about issues with Planet Backup, I begun backing what I could up to a Micro SD-card, intending to do a factory reset, which I will now skip.

As moving my main SIM would mess with my e-Id, I've forwarded my calls to a SIM in my Comso, so I can be reached and use the internet when not at home.

21

Astro Slide - Android / Re: Astro update to V07

« on: May 26, 2023, 09:18:12 am »

I just got another reply from Planet. They have, thus far, seen about four or five Astros with V07-related screen issues, one of which is to arrive at their office tomorrow (Saturday). That might help them decide the best course of action.

I had asked them about doing a factory reset, but they didn't mention it in their reply. They did say "You can always try to use Planet Backup to try and back up the device." which might be the easiest way to get things back after a reset, but I still don't know if a factory reset would be advisable.

One thing they said I could try is to run down the battery until the Astro turns off (and, presumably recharge it from there). They suspect the screen initialisation went wrong for an unknown reason, but are not sure until they have examined an affected device.

Worst case, I can send my Astro in for repair, but as I live outside the UK, I'd rather not. Reflashing it manually might also be an option, if no easier solutions are found. I'll keep researching for a while and hopefully Planet will know a bit more soon.

22

Astro Slide - Android / Re: Astro update to V07

« on: May 26, 2023, 08:53:23 am »

Trippy colors... whatever this is, it seems to affect multiple users, in different ways.

When I e-mailed an update to Planet today, telling them I can now, at least, get the recovery menu to show up on the external screen, I also shared a link to this thread and mentioned there are others than me having V07-related display issues. Generally, I think it's good if those affected could email Planet and share whatever details they can, as they'd probably need every clue they can get right now.

If I had to guess, I'd say the update somehow messes with the display controller (or similar), perhaps sometimes corrupting some, perhaps non-volatile, configuration in some semi-random way, which, in most cases fixes itself after a reboot or two but, depending on exactly what gets corrupted, may have worse consequences. Oh well... guessing is my keyword here. 

In the name of research, I unplugged the HDMI and rebooted. When I knew the Astro had reached the PIN screen, I tapped around blindly and found a spot that played the tap sound in my headset, so FWIW, my touch screen seems to, technically speaking, work when HDMI isn't attached. With HDMI out active, touch doesn't work, which I presume is by design. Luckily, I have a bluetooth mouse that works with my Astro.

@Zarhan Thank you for explaining fastboot. As I need the left hand USB port for HDMI, unless I can use the right hand port for something else than power, I guess I won't be doing much USB anything. I did try plugging the Planet USB-C hub into the lefthand port, plug the HDMI adapter into the USB-C port of the hub and reboot. As I expected, HDMI out didn't work that way.

@undecisive It should, in theory, be possible to initiate a factory reset blindly, if someone who can see what they're doing would write down the exact sequence of volume up/down and/or power button presses needed to start the reset. Whether it would be feasible in practice is another question. As of now, I do not know for sure that a factory reset would even help. For all I know thus far, it could make things worse, so I'm not willing to just try a reset just yet.

23

Astro Slide - Android / Re: Astro update to V07

« on: May 25, 2023, 11:56:15 am »

The correct way to get to recovery is to power on while holding volume UP. Not down.
(Then, when the "No command" shows up, press and hold power, and again tap volume up to get to the menu).

Well, details matters. Thank you very much.

Right now, even if I do a shut down, during which I unplug everything, the Astro, weirdly enough, spontaneously boots again, but if I do a shut down and holds volume up until it boots again, I get the "No command" on the external screen. From there I can hold the power button and and tap volume up to get to the recovery menu. I haven't yet ventured further.

@Daniel W: Damn, sorry to hear you've had such issues!

I recall kinda similar behaviour with my Cosmo (prior to installing multiboot?), where if I held the Esc button for too long when booting it up, it would boot into Android but with the screen disabled - I take it that it was then booting from a secondary boot partition which had something wrong with it. You're not doing that, are you? In my case, iirc, the screen was active during the bootloader, but turned off after that - does yours display anything at all at boot? (it doesn't sound like it)

I wrote up instructions for entering all the boot modes in the wiki. Does booting into any of the other modes show anything? Does it display your charging state when it's turned off and you press Esc?

Well, at the moment, the Astro spontaneously turns itself back on a few seconds after a shut down (I'm not doing a restart and it says "shutting down" while doing so), even from the recovery menu. As far as I can tell, neither the Escape key nor the power button appears stuck (as they both work normally once the Astro has booted again).

Before the Astro begun doing that, I don't think I held the power button very long, just barely until the Astro vibrated (as that's the only indication I get when the internal screen doesn't work). In any case, when I rebooted from inside the updater (and the internal screen went dead) I didn't hold or press any physical buttons at all. But well, as my Astro is stock, if it tries to "multi-boot" anyway, that might be a piece to the puzzle?

As I stated above, I can now get to the recovery menu, but haven't dared doing anything there yet, except reboot and shutdown. As the screen is an OLED, it could on principle show a black image and I wouldn't know. As far as I can tell, the screen appears to be off. Once when I forced a reboot, I think I saw a brief flash of white in a corner, but that could have been a reflection.

Both when the Astro is on and (briefly atm.) off, it shows the charge state when I have a charger connected (on the right hand side, as the HDMI dongle uses the left hand port). When I do a shut down, the LED briefly changes to red, even though I'm above 80% charge, but it soon turns green again, about when the Astro boots itself.

When I, erroneously, held power + volume down (which the Wiki says should be "Fastboot") I didn't even get a picture on the external screen, but I may have fumbled somehow, so maybe I should try that again. I have not yet tried safe mode.

24

Astro Slide - Android / Re: Astro update to V07

« on: May 25, 2023, 07:39:37 am »

When, after a shutdown, booting with the HMDI cable attached, the Astro first vibrates briefly, then the LED next to Q comes on in blue for a few seconds. After that, HDMI kicks in, sometimes showing some binary garbage, followed by a generic Android logo and after that, the SIM PIN screen, the lock screen and, finally, the home screen, all in glorious 720p (which is very cramped and looks weird on a 50-ish inch TV...)

When I, after a shutdown, held volume down and turned the Astro on, with the HMDI cable attached, I never got any HDMI out.

It is quite possible I did something wrong. As I recall, I slid off of the volume down button a few seconds after the Astro powered on, so maybe I should try again and hold volume down pressed for longer? Is volume down + power on even the correct sequence to get to the recovery mode on an Astro? I basically just noticed I didn't get any HDMI on the first attempt, forced a reboot and e-mailed Planet.

25

Astro Slide - Android / Re: Astro update to V07

« on: May 25, 2023, 07:14:16 am »

If you access the external screen, try a factory reset on your phone.

I might. I should be able to initiate a reset from within Android and should that work, I should be fine...

The scary bit is that the HDMI doesn't seem to kick in until Android is actually booting, so it seems I can't see things like the recovery menu. Would anything I do disable HDMI out, I could be kind of hosed.

I have never used the ADB (Android Debug Bridge) over USB before, but I suppose turning in on before seriously messing with anything, might give me a second way in, should I loose video out. Things like flashing tools and scatter files are also just a haze to me, so I might need to ask some n00b questions, should I need to reflash.

For now, I'll wait a bit and see what Planet says. As can be seen in the picture I posted above, I have, for now, set my Astro up as a "stationary mobile". That's not ideal, but at least I can handle phone calls and use my e-id to pay bills and such. Should I need to, I can move that id to my old Cosmo (which now serves as my bedside clock again) but I'm trying to not get ahead of myself right now.

26

Astro Slide - Android / Re: Astro update to V07

« on: May 24, 2023, 06:14:58 pm »

Well... I sent the email to Planet Computers 10:51PM local time, which is 9:51PM British Summer Time. A guy called Jeff replied 61 minutes later (at 10:52PM BST) so apparently someone works late over there (and I'm up late, over here. ;-)

The reply mostly said they'd ask their ODM for advice first. If that doesn't help, they could try sending me software for a full reflash. We'll see. I've hooked up an external screen, power, mouse and headset a bit better now, so I should be able to use it landline-style until this is resolved.

Edit:

27

Astro Slide - Android / Re: Astro update to V07

« on: May 24, 2023, 04:57:23 pm »

Now I have emailed Planet. In my past experience, they have replied fairly quickly. Let's hope they do so this time too.

By booting without HDMI, logging in blindly and then calling my Astro from another phone, I've confirmed that my Astro does boot without HDMI. It is still rather useless in that state though. It rang as expected, but without the screen I couldn't answer.

For the short term I'll plan to have it tethered to an external screen and a bluetooth mouse. That will probably get cumbersome really soon though... 

28

Astro Slide - Android / Re: Astro update to V07

« on: May 24, 2023, 03:40:59 pm »

I tried connecting the HDMI adapter and force a reboot. That gave me signal on an external screen. That way I could log in and verify that Android itself isn't broken. If I reboot it again without the HDMI adapter, the internal screen still won't turn on.

Since I, at least, has the external screen working, I'll experiment some more. Probably I'll end up contacting Planet.

29

Astro Slide - Android / Re: Astro update to V07

« on: May 24, 2023, 02:18:42 pm »

Well, I'm in trouble... after installing the update, I tapped on reboot in the updater. The screen turned off, the LED next to Q came on in blue for a couple of seconds, but the screen never turned on again. I waited a while but nothing happened. I held down Esc for ten or so seconds, which seems to force a reboot, since the vibrator buzzes briefly and LED next to Q comes on in blue for a couple of seconds again, but the screen doesn't turn on.

Right now, the charging LED, the keyboard backlight and the shift lock indicator works. Pressing the up or down buttons makes keyboard clicks, but only at most five in each direction, as if the Astro was showing a menu on its turned off screen. Forcing more reboots just seems to return the device to that state...

Help?

30

Astro Slide - Android / Re: Major security vulnerability with Google Pixels

« on: April 08, 2023, 06:11:23 pm »

Well, the 9to5Google article links to a Samsung security statement that lists six particular Samsung chips, perhaps including variants, and decribes the problem as an issue within their embedded software.

Since no other chip brand is mentioned, we can conclude that Samsung didn't license the affected technology to anyone else. Thus, this issue can reasonably only affect devices built around these specific Samsung chips, which also must run a vulnerable version of the embedded software.

While any phone may contain off-the-shelf Samsung parts, such as RAM, flash, sensors, amplifiers, power management stuff etc, the SoC and the modem contains intellectual property, which the phone manufacturer must license, before they are even allowed to buy the chips.

The factory Planet Computers employs, are (only) licensed to use MediaTek, so a Planet phone cannot legally contain a non MediaTek modem. Even if it could, it would probably neither be technologically feasible nor financially viable to combine a MediaTek SoC with a Samsung modem.

As far as I know, the SoC models Planet has used so far, all has their modems integrated into the SoC itself (which, reasonably is the cheapest option).